


Bloodborn

by Myxini



Category: Original Work
Genre: Belly Kink, Blood, Blood Addiction, M/M, Stomach Ache, Stuffing, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-05-17 01:56:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14823018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myxini/pseuds/Myxini
Summary: This is the story of a vampire named Theo, his boyfriend Darren, and their struggles to keep Theo alive and adequately fed.Stuffing / bloating kink fic with a lil side of plot, mainly driven by tumblr requests.





	1. New Vampire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was based on the following anonymous tumblr request:
> 
> *raises hand* Heyy, any chance I could get a new vampire who doesn't have much self-control yet overdoing it one night and drinking until he feels like he's going to pop? No need for the actual feeding, just the aftermath is fine ^^; Thanks in advance! Loving the story so far!!

The drop from the bedroom window to the alley would’ve killed a normal human. Afterward, he couldn’t have said whether he’d actually jumped or if he’d glided down on leathery wings. His self-awareness didn’t really return to him until the cold night air had cleared the scent of blood from his nostrils.

Then his sense came flooding back all at once. He fell against the cold brick, groaning quietly. “Oooh… oh my god….”

His stomach was searing, the way his skin had seared the first time he’d accidentally stepped into the sun. He cradled it desperately, hunching over and gasping in tiny, labored breaths. There was no room inside him for air.

The others had warned him that the feedings got more intense, that he would have to learn some self-control. Vampires could swell, just like ticks and mosquitoes could. He’d learned that on his first night out. But this was more than just heavy bloating. It felt like every crevice in him was totally full. His belly was big and tight and incredibly round, swollen in a way he was sure it could not have handled before the bite.

From the way he felt, he wasn’t totally sure his belly could handle it now.

He’d totally overdone it, and now he was going to explode in a back alley.

The sun would be up soon. He had to move. But there was no way he could stand like this. He tried to shift slightly and got a horrific cramp for his troubles. His stomach gurgled unhappily, and he moaned.

He heard footsteps approaching down the alley. It would’ve scared him, but they were so quiet that they were below the range of normal human hearing. It could only be one person.

They came to a stop beside him. He felt eyes on his back.

“Stomachache?” the older vampire asked snidely.

“Ugh….” He was in too much pain to defend his pride. “Think I’m going to burst….”

“It would serve you right if you did.” He was hauled unceremoniously to his feet, yelping as his poor stomach sloshed. “Come on. I know it feels bad, but you’ll sleep it off in a few hours. Trust me—by sunset, you’ll be thirsty again.”


	2. Stuffed with Human Food

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was based on the following tumblr request:
> 
> "How about ficlet where a nice vampire and his human boyfriend spend the night in the estate of an Enemy Vampire Hunter to allay his suspicions about them...which includes the poor, underfed vampire having to finish an immense meal of human food. He remains calm, eats everything, gives no sign of discomfort, and walks with his boyfriend back to their room, where he collapses on the bed because his poor belly isn't used to holding solid food and the boyfriend comforts him."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some hasty backstory --
> 
> Shortly after being turned, Theo was taken in by a group called the Coven. The Coven’s schtick is that rather than exsanguinating random innocents, they create hit lists of people who’ve committed crimes and their members prey exclusively from this list as a form of vigilante justice. Eventually, something soured Theo to acting as judge, jury, and executioner and he left the Coven. Around the same time, he met Darren, who became his boyfriend.
> 
> Now Theo is living in the shadows, hiding from the Coven and other people who want to kill him, ‘cause being a lone vampire is dangerous….

Theo knew she was a vampire hunter. It was neither ignorance nor stupidity that got him to the point where he was sitting at her dining table with a fake smile plastered on his temporarily-defanged face.

The whole Coven had been terrified of her. After all, she was like something straight out of primetime TV—a successful lawyer living in a beautiful suburban home with her husband and three golden retrievers. She volunteered with underprivileged kids, made generous annual donations to the local animal shelter, and in her spare time, she tracked down vampires and killed them dead.

“If anyone in this city’s gonna kill you, it’s Selena Chang,” one of Theo’s old Coven buddies had once said. “She’s ruthless. She worms her way into your social sphere and flips the lid on your coffin, so to speak. She’s so bad that if she started tracking you tomorrow, you’d be out of the Coven until you could shake her.  _If_  you could shake her.”

“Shit, really?” Theo had said. “What would I do?”

“You’d figure something out. Or not.” A toothy grin. “The only thing you c _an_  do is convince her you’re not a vampire. Ignore her and she’ll stake you in your sleep. Try to reason with her and she’ll sweetly agree to let you go, and then stake you in your sleep. Basically, one wrong move and you’re dead meat.”

Theo had thought about that a lot since leaving the Coven. One of his small comforts was that he didn’t have much of a social sphere these days, unless you counted the late-night clerk at the corner shop where he regularly went to buy ground beef and aspirin. But he’d forgotten about Darren.

Darren still had a normal life. He didn’t think twice when a friendly new face showed up at his aerobics class and struck up a conversation. One evening, Theo had gone over to Darren’s place and found the face of his nightmares sitting on his boyfriend’s sofa with a glass of blood-red wine.

She had invited them over for dinner a week later. “My husband loves to cook. He’ll be delighted to have guests.”

“That’s kind of you, but um… the buses stop running your way pretty early,” Theo had said nervously. “And we, uh, we don’t have a car.”

“Oh, that’s no trouble,” she’d said with a smile. “You can stay the night in our guest room. We have plenty of space.”

And that’s how Theo had ended up staring down a plate mounded high with vegetarian lasagna, steamed broccoli, and creamy mashed potatoes. There was a big basket of rolls on the table and chocolate cake had been promised for dessert.

It was probably delicious. From the look on Darren’s face, the smell must’ve been irresistible. But Theo’s body reacted to it as though he were looking at a plate of spare car parts. No water in his mouth. No desire in his guts. Just a vague nauseous hunger. He’d sucked as much juice as he could from a packet of cheap ground beef that morning, but that’d been like a drop in an empty, empty bucket.

“Well, everyone,” said Selena Chang with an impenetrable smile, “dig in!”

Theo put a lump of lasagna in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. It felt like a pebble dropping into his stomach, but he sighed and smiled as though it had been delicious.

Everything was packed with garlic, of course. There were whole cloves of it in the lasagna and the potatoes had been whipped with garlic butter. Garlic wasn’t gonna kill him, but it wasn’t gonna make him feel very good either. He’d learned that very soon after he’d been bitten, when he’d woken up in the middle of the night ravaged by bloodthirst. At the time he’d mistaken it for desperate hunger and so he’d dug some garlic bread out of the freezer and devoured the whole thing. God, he’d never been so sick.

From the way his stomach was starting to feel, he guessed today would probably smash that record. But Selena Chang was staring him down and he wasn’t ready to die yet.

So he smiled and talked and ate and hurt and hurt and hurt.

\- - -

As soon as the guest room door shut behind them, Theo collapsed backwards onto the bed, groaning.

“Are you okay?” Darren asked.

“Urghhhh. No.” Theo wrapped an arm over his stomach. “I can’t believe I got everything down, ugh. Feels like I’ve eaten rocks.”

“That was a  _lot_ of food. Even I’ve got a bit of a bellyache from it. Those potatoes were heavy. And that cake was—”

“Oh god,  _shut up_. Ughhh. I need—I can’t—can you—?”

“Of course.” Darren pushed Theo’s hands away and unfastened the belt he was struggling with.

Theo groaned as his belly surged outward. It felt more like a nauseous wave rolling through his stomach than a relief. “Ohhhh, god… d’you think she’ll stake me through the heart if I puke all over her guest room?”

“Probably. Just for ruining these fabulous Egyptian cotton sheets.” Darren sat down on the edge of the bed and stroked Theo’s hair. “You did so good back there.”

“Yeah? You think I convinced her?”

“Absolutely.  _I_ almost believed you were having the best meal of your life. You didn’t look uncomfortable at all.”

“Huh. Guess I’m better actor than my high school drama teacher gave me credit for…. Oh my god, I feel so sick! Like I’m stuffed full of garbage.” Theo put a hand to the side of his belly. It was swollen. Nothing compared to how full and round it used to look after he’d had a proper feeding, but that was a different kind of swollen than this nauseous, achy misery.  _That_  was a wonderful, contented, satiated sort of swollenness….

He dropped his voice to a whisper. “I want blood.”

Darren put his hand over Theo’s, gently rubbing the bloated belly. “You want to put  _more_ into this thing?”

“I could fit a couple raw steaks in there. God, I really could.” Theo had to swallow the saliva that had filled his mouth. His stomach gurgled—stuffed full and yet still so, so hungry….

Darren stared down at him, eyes soft. “Theo… if you need to, you know I’d let you—”

“No way. I already took from you last week, I’m not gonna—”

“But I’d let you.”

“ _No._ You need it more than I do.” He paused, taking a quick breath. “I can’t, anyway. My stomach is upset as hell and if I puke blood under this roof, I’m as good as dead.”

Darren’s fingers slipped down from Theo’s belly to one of his jutting hipbones. They slowly traced up to where his ribs were showing through his skin.

“You need a proper meal,” he said quietly. “I can see you wasting away. You can’t survive on beef drippings and a pint or two from me every other week.”

“Yeah, well, what I am supposed to do? Climb through a window and drain the nearest helpless virgin? If I take anyone from the Coven’s hit list, they’ll find me, and you know I don’t want to be like them anymore—”

“I know.” Darren slipped down to lie on the bed next to Theo. “We’ll figure something out.”

“If I murder any more people, I’d deserve a stake through the heart! I can’t let myself—”

“Theo! We’ll figure something out! Okay?”

Theo shut his mouth. He briefly considered the word  _we_ and what a beautiful, wonderful word it was.

“But we’re not gonna figure out anything out tonight, are we?” Darren went on.

Theo cleared his throat. “Maybe we could figure out how to settle a stomach that hasn’t handled any solid food in over a year?”

Darren carefully pushed up Theo’s shirt and planted a kiss on the crest of his churning belly. “There. Did that make you feel better?”

Theo let out a short, painful laugh. “Try a hand on my belly and a kiss on my mouth,” he said, and he sighed as Darren obliged.


	3. Proper Meal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was based on the following tumblr request:
> 
> Ahh Vamp boy is so cute! And you’re writing style even disregarding the kink element is so descriptive and wonderful??? If u ever have the time, would love to see a fic with Theo and the ‘good and satiated’ kind of stuffing :):):):):)

In the end, Theo was saved by an unlikely hero—Darren’s brother and his willingness to let them borrow his Toyota Corolla overnight without asking any questions.

They set out shortly before midnight, Darren driving and Theo wrapped in a blanket in the passenger’s seat. The streets were quiet and it wasn’t long before the sprawl of the city gave way to woodland.

“Maybe you could catch a deer?” Darren suggested.

Theo shook his head. “I need some kind of dumb, domesticated animal that’ll just sit there and let me do my thing. Don’t have the energy to run.”

He did not mention that lately he’d barely had the energy to even walk as far as the corner shop. Darren was worried enough about his health as it was.

They kept driving until they hit farmland. Darren took the first exit off the freeway and trundled down narrower and narrower roads. Eventually he pulled over next to a pasture and asked, “How about cows?”

“Cows sound great.” Theo shrugged off the blanket and reached for the door handle. “I always liked a good steak.”

As weak as he’d been lately, his ability to glide silently through the darkness hadn’t been compromised. It was almost too easy to sneak up on one of the big gentle lumps sleeping out in the pasture and kneel next to it. He could hear its heartbeat thundering in his ears and smell the warm, rich scent of living flesh. The desperate hunger he’d been trying to ignore all day convulsed inside him.

He struck. His fangs sunk deep. He felt the animal stiffen slightly, then relax as his anesthetic venom got to work. Then there was warm liquid in his mouth and he knew nothing except the depths of his thirst.

The first few pints went down quickly, soothing the poor pinched crevices inside him. He soon felt full, but there was so much more blood—all the blood he could want, enough to slake the hunger forever, and he was going to take it all.

He could feel his belly slowly bloating out as he drank. It grew firm, then swollen, then round and taut and heavy, but even when it started to ache, he didn’t feel like stopping. He drank until no more blood would come and then sat back heavily in the grass, clutching his distended stomach and moaning.

“Are you all right?” asked Darren from somewhere nearby.

“Mmm.” Theo licked his lips and patted the side of his rounded belly. “Ooh, that— _urp_ —that was a lot more blood than a human has. I’m stuffed. God, it feels good.”

“I’m glad. But we should get out of here.”

“Yeah. Just let me—

A warm, living smell made Theo’s nose twitch. Another cow had risen, disturbed by their voices, and unwittingly wandered straight into his path.

His vision flashed red, and suddenly his fangs were sinking through soft fur and warm liquid was running into his mouth and he was sucking it down.

His belly came to its senses before his brain did. It sent a jolt of aching protest through him, and he released his bite, groaning. “Ughhh, oh my god.” He hunched over, cradling his stomach. “Oooh, belly hurts…. Can’t— _urp_ —drink any more….”

But then the cow shifted softly in the grass, and Theo realized that he’d drunk enough to doom it but not enough to kill it. Without the anesthetic properties of his fangs, it would die a slow death.

Plus, he couldn’t stand the thought of the rest of that sweet, rich, precious blood running to waste into the dirt.

“Ohhh, I have to…” he moaned, and bit back down.

His stomach was hard as a rock, straining bigger and bigger as he drank. He groaned with each swallow, aching badly, struggling with weight of his meal. As the blood slowed to a trickle, he knew suddenly that he couldn’t take another drop.

He pulled his fangs out with a belly-sloshing gasp. “Oooh _urrp_ … ohhh, I’m  _fulllll_ ….”

The world reeled around him. All he could feel was the throbbing gurgle of his stomach under his hands. He felt stuffed to brim, full up to the back of his throat, like he was seconds away from either exploding or getting sick but he didn’t even care because it was so, so  _good_ to not be hungry anymore.

“Jesus, Theo!” Darren’s steadying hand made contact with his back. “Are you all right?”

Theo lolled back against Darren’s chest, drunk on blood and bliss. “Thank you,” he gasped. “Thank you for taking me here, Darren. Thank you. I love you.”

“Uh—I love you too. But you’re kinda scaring me right now.”

Theo grinned. He could feel blood dripping from his fangs and over his lips, and some logical part of him knew he must look like an animal. “M’a vampire. I  _should_ be scary.”

“I mean I’m kind of scared that your tummy might burst.” Darren put his hand very gently on the crest of the bloated swell. Even that light pressure was enough to make Theo groan and struggle through some strained belches. “You don’t think that second one might’ve been a liiiittle too much?”

“Ooooh, it was. Too much, way too much. But too much is what I needed….” He turned his head to belch into his shoulder. “Ooh—ow, my stomach—god, this feels  _so good,_ Darren!So fucking good!”

“Like I said, you’re scaring m—” Darren began, but he was cut off as Theo twisted his head around and pressed their lips together.

It was a long, aggressive kiss that probably would’ve gone further had Theo been able to move.

“Jesus,” said Darren when they broke apart. “You’re lucky I love you, ‘cause I really don’t love the taste of cow blood. Ugh.” He spit into the grass and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

“Sorry.” Theo bared his teeth in a wide, lazy grin. “I have no self-control.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” Darren punched his shoulder gently. “Calm down a little, huh? Try to breathe.”

“ _Urp._ Can’t breathe. No room.”

“Well, try to—to digest, or something. Just take it easy. I’ll help you to the car as soon as I don’t think you’ll pop from it.”

Darren laid him across the backseat of the Toyota for the drive back to the city. Theo was still so full that every bump in the road made his belly slosh and gurgle. It ached, but the pain was nothing compared to the warm, luxurious, overwhelming pleasure of satiety.

By the time they made it home, he was fast asleep.


	4. Sleepy Achy Theo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was based on the following tumblr request:
> 
> Sleepy stuffing scenario? Or a villain/hero stuffing scenario?
> 
> (I went a bit off-script with this one hehe)

“Theo! Wake up!”

Theo jolted awake with a hiccup and a groan. “Ughhhh. Why?” He wiped a bit of blood from his lips and glanced blearily around the moonlit pasture, as though he’d forgotten what they were doing there.

Darren crouched down beside his boyfriend and gave him an encouraging pat on the back. “You’ve still got three sheep left to go, love, come on.”

“Ohh, do I have to? I’m so tired and I’m already so  _full_ ….”

“You’ve still got room.” Darren poked Theo’s belly, which was big and bulging but still not quite as tight as he knew the vampire could get it. “You have to get your fill now. It’s got to tide you over until next weekend, remember!”

Theo groaned. “All right, fine. Can you bring the next one to me? I don’t wanna move.”

“Getting spoiled, are we?”

“Hey,  _you_  try standing up with belly this full and tell me how easy it is!”

“Point taken.” Darren ruffled Theo’s hair affectionately as he got up to fetch one of the woolly lumps slumbering nearby.

Nearly two months had passed since they’d started Theo’s livestock diet. They’d since learned a lot of lessons—one of them being that if Theo snuck up on each animal he wanted and gave them quick nibbles, his anesthetic venom would knock them out. Then they could be picked up and drained like juice boxes. And Theo  _did_ drain them like juice boxes.

It was certainly interesting, driving your boyfriend an hour out of the city once a week to watch him gorge himself on animal blood in the dead of the night. Theo had guiltily offered to make the trip alone several times, but even he had to admit that he was pretty useless after he’d fed and needed Darren’s help.

Besides, Darren sort of liked watching.

He deposited the next sheep into Theo’s lap. “Order up! One mutton chop, extra rare.”

Theo buried his nose in the sheep’s wool and took a deep inhale of its scent. “Mmm, thanks Darr,” he purred before biting down.

Darren watched him with a fond smile. It was terrifying but also strangely cute, the way Theo drank with singular predatory focus, one hand on his swollen tummy.

It was also good to see him eat after so many weeks of helplessly watching him starve. Theo looked so much healthier these days. He’d put on weight, regaining everything he’d lost and then some. Privately, Darren thought he was actually getting a bit pudgy, although he never would’ve injured Theo’s vain streak by saying that aloud. It wasn’t a bad look on him—certainly better than that gaunt, wasted look he’d had before.

A snore jolted Darren out of his thoughts, and he realized that Theo had fallen asleep with his cheek pillowed in wool, blood dripping from his open mouth.

“Theo!” Darren shook his shoulder. “C’mon, you’ve got to finish!”

“—Hmm? Oh. Ugh….”

“Have you been getting enough sleep lately?”

“I dunno. It  _is_ the middle of the night.” Theo burped and pressed a hand against his stomach. He let out a deep sigh before reluctantly biting back down.

Darren’s brow creased with concern. Something was wrong. Usually, Theo relished every drop, even when he was near to bursting—glutting himself with euphoric abandon and then lying back to luxuriate in his fullness like a sated lion. Now, he sat stiff and stony-faced, finishing off the sheep with reluctant, painful-looking swallows.

He let the drained carcass drop with a groan. “Darren—honestly, I don’t feel very good. Can we just go home?”

“Oh! What part of you doesn’t feel good?”

“I guess my—my stomach is sort of upset.” Theo rubbed a hand over his belly. It sloshed audibly, bloated but not quite tight with blood. “I’ve had enough, I can’t drink any more. I just want to go home.”

“All right.” Darren felt in his pocket for the car keys. “You have to take care of the sheep first, though.”

“They’ll be fine. They’ll wake up in a bit.”

“No, I mean the dead ones, love.”

They had learned the importance of savaging the carcasses early on, after an unfortunate segment on the evening news about the mysterious dead cows that a farmer had found in his fields, exsanguinated but otherwise unharmed. Since then, Theo had made sure the scene could be mistaken for a wild animal attack.

“Oh—right.” Theo glanced down at the sheep beside him. He swallowed hard, like the thought of biting back into flesh was making him feel sick. Then he spoke in a thin voice, “This pasture is pretty far out. A coyote or something will probably get the bodies before the farmer finds them.”

“Let’s just go then, if you’re feeling that bad.” Darren crouched beside Theo and slung an arm around his waist. Theo winced and hiccuped as Darren’s hand brushed his swollen belly, and again when he was hauled to his feet.

Their borrowed Toyota wasn’t far away. Darren let Theo lean heavily on him as they crossed the dark field. Theo often had trouble walking after a big meal, but something was different tonight. He was unsteadier than usual, breathing harsh and uneven.

Suddenly, Theo stiffened and stopped short.

Darren didn’t even have time to ask what was wrong before Theo’s fangs were sinking into his shoulder.

Darren sometimes let Theo take a bit of blood from him, but  _that_  was always slow and controlled and intimate, a careful prick of Theo’s teeth on the soft skin at the crook of Darren’s elbow.  _This_  was Theo in animal mode—plunging deep and drinking to drain.

“Theo! Stop!” Darren gasped, trying to pull away, but Theo’s jaws only clenched harder. So Darren grabbed him by the hair, wrenched his fangs out, and gave him a rough shove that sent him sprawling onto the grass.

“What the hell?” Darren shouted. “What the  _hell_ was that?!”

Theo rolled into a crouch, teeth bared and dripping—and for one petrifying moment, Darren was certain he was about to die.

But then Theo blinked and shook his head. His eyes went wide.

“Holy  _shit_ ,” he murmured.

Then he retched.

“No, no—keep it down.” Darren dropped to his knees beside him. “You need it, love. You need what’s in you.”

Theo panted weakly and pressed his lips together, eyes squeezing shut.

“Keep it down. There you go. Good job.” Darren wanted to hug him, but was afraid to get close. “Are you… are you okay?”

“I’m so fucking sorry,” Theo croaked. “I don’t know—I don’t know why I did that….”

Darren touched his injured shoulder. His fingers came away damp and sticky. “We can talk about it later.”

“You’re hurt, Darr, you’re really—”

“It’s all right. You didn’t get much.” Darren pressed a hand tight over the wound. “You look awful, Theo. You look like you’re gonna pass out.”

“I guess I’m kinda, uh… I feel dizzy. And too hot….”

“Maybe you’ve caught the flu.”

“Yeah. Maybe.” Theo crossed his arms over his stomach. “Ugh, I ate too much.”

“Let me clean myself up and then we can go, okay?”

Darren got the first aid kit out of the back of the Toyota. He gave the twin punctures in his shoulder a thorough cleaning and then taped a gauze pad tightly over. His shirt was stained with blood, so he wrapped it up in a spare plastic bag and left it in the trunk, zipping his coat up over his bare chest.

Theo was waiting for him the front of the car, slumped against the window. He sat up straight as Darren climbed into the driver’s seat.

“You sure you’re okay?” he asked, eyes wide with anxiety. “I  _really_  didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“I know you didn’t.” Darren smiled, even though inside he was starting to feel the shock of what had happened. “We can talk tomorrow. Let’s just go home and get some sleep.”

They didn’t speak much during the drive. The car was silent except for the cough of the old engine and the periodic rumbling from Theo’s stomach.

“Still feeling sick?” Darren asked after a particularly loud gurgle.

“I’m just… really full….” Theo was half-asleep in his seat. “Kinda got a stomachache.”

“Poor thing. Maybe you’re lamb-tose intolerant?”

Normally, Theo would’ve groaned at the corny joke. Theo  _always_ groaned at Darren’s corny jokes.

But tonight, he just said, “Eating sheep didn’t do this to me last month.”

“No, it didn’t.” Darren bit his lip and turned his attention back to the road.

It was nearly three in the morning by the time they pulled up at Theo’s apartment complex. Four flights of stairs later, Darren deposited his feeble boyfriend and his overnight bag on the couch. He kept some things at Theo’s place, but always brought a bag with him on these weekends because a fresh change of clothes was generally necessary after night of blood and animal dung.

“Right,” he said. “You want the bathroom first or should I go?”

Theo was staring straight ahead. He coughed and spoke in a strained voice.

“Darr… I can smell your blood.”

The words hung in the air. Darren felt a chill down to his bones.

“Thought you were full up on sheep, love,” he said quietly.

“I am. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Can you—can you sleep at your place tonight? I really don’t want to hurt you again.”

The chill transformed into sick dread. “Theo, you’re not well, you shouldn’t be alone. I could sleep on your couch.”

“I’ll still be able to smell you.” Theo wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I might get up in the night and—and—who knows? I just want you to be safe….” His lips twisted strangely, and Darren knew his tongue worrying at his fangs, like it often did when he was stressed. In the silence, he heard the two words Theo had left off the end of his sentence:  _from me._

“Okay,” he relented. “But promise you’ll call me if you need me?”

“Mmhm. Of course.” Theo finally met Darren’s gaze and smiled tentatively. “Sorry to make you drive home at this hour. You’re the best and I love you.”

“It’s fine. I love you too.” Darren met his boyfriend’s smile with an equally shaky one. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

Darren blasted the radio all the way home, hoping it would drown out his thoughts. It didn’t. As soon as he had the car in park, he was fumbling for his phone, opening his messages.

 _Home now,_ he typed. _You sure you’re okay? You seemed so ill earlier, I hate leaving you alone._

He sat in the darkness and stared at the empty screen for about a minute before sighing and unbuckling his seatbelt. No use being paranoid. Theo had probably fallen asleep, like he’d been on the verge of doing all night.

Darren’s bedroom felt dark and lonely. He tried not to think about it as he stripped down to his underwear and then went to brush his teeth. In the bathroom mirror, he caught sight of the gauze on his shoulder—already soaked through with blood—and gritted his teeth. Vampire wounds were designed to bleed. He should probably redo the bandaging.

A sudden noise echoed off the tile as his phone buzzed against the counter. Darren swiped it up and read the message from Theo:

_I’ll be fine. Stop worrying you dork. <3 <3 Gonna sleep now. Love u._

\- - -

Theo rolled over and pressed his pillow over his head, trying to keep the sound of his own heartbeat out of his ears. His stomach churned, threatening again to reject the unwanted stuff it was so very full of. He groaned and wrapped an arm around it.

Even through the pillow, he could hear it making noises. They were not low gurgles of digestion but sharp, painful growls.

Theo had been a vampire long enough to know that his body didn’t always make sense. As sick and bloated as he felt, he knew the cramps in his heavy, swollen stomach for what they really were.

Hunger pangs.


	5. Halloween Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was based on the following tumblr request:
> 
> ITS HALLOWEEN TIME FOR CHUBBY VAMPIRES. Also trick or treating.
> 
> (but I went for stuffed rather than chubby because that's more my jam! This chapter takes place before the previous one chronologically.)

“I swear to god I’ve never felt stupider in my life.”

“Never? You’re sure? I can think of a few times you might wanna consider.”

“Very funny, Darren. And  _yes,_ I’m sure.” Theo tugged at the high-necked collar on the cheap polyester cape his boyfriend had forced him into. “This is not what vampires look like. Vampires look like  _me.”_

“Yeah, well, you usually look more like a homeless screamo fan than than Count Dracula,” said Darren teasingly. He leaned towards the bathroom mirror and began clumsily applying the black eyeliner they’d picked up at Walgreens that afternoon.

Theo watched him with a mix of affection and exasperation. He’d never seen a grown man get so excited about Halloween. Darren had been talking about dressing them both up as silly horror-movie vampires for weeks, ever since they’d gotten the invitation to his co-worker’s party. As much as Theo didn’t get appeal of wearing a stupid costume, he hadn’t been able to say no in the face of his boyfriend’s adorable enthusiasm.

It could’ve been worse, really. At least the billowing cape hid the shape of his body. Darren had taken him out to feed only yesterday and he was still pretty swollen from it. Better that Darren’s colleagues didn’t wonder why he’d spontaneously sprouted a beer belly.

“I don’t suppose you’re gonna let me put some of this eyeliner on you,” Darren mused as he moved on to his other eye.

“Absolutely not. You’ll poke my eyeball out.”

“Huh! Well, you don’t need it anyway. You’ve got your all-natural eye bags.”

“And I’m  _not_ wearing those plastic fangs you got either,” Theo added.

That made Darren’s face fall. “Aw, really? But how are people gonna know you’re supposed to be a vampire?”

“I could just leave my  _actual_  fangs out.”

“No you can’t. Not unless you can think of a good way to explain how you got your hands on Hollywood-worthy mouth prosthetics.”

“Okay, true, but I’m not wearing the plastic ones. Do you know how uncomfortable they’re gonna be? It’s hard enough to talk when the stupid long things in your mouth are your actual teeth!” Theo made a face. “I don’t know why everyone wants to be a vampire so bad. I’d be perfectly happy dressing up as a normal human.” 

“Aww, cheer up, Theo! It’s the one day of the year that I can  _actually_  tell people my boyfriend is a vampire! And the one day of the year I can match you. Ah-ha- _ha!_ ” Darren spun around, striking a pose with his cape raised in front of his face. “What do you think?”

Theo felt his heart going all gooey in his chest. “I think you’re the world’s biggest dork,” he said, and the last of his resolve crumbled at the boyish delight that lit up Darren’s face. “All right, fine – give me the stupid fangs.”

* * *

The party was actually fun. Darren’s co-workers were a friendly, relaxed crowd, and surprisingly dorky for a bunch of fitness nuts. There were board games scattered around, and little pumpkins to carve, and an old-school horror movie planned for later in the night.

There was also an enormous amount of junk food. Bowls of candy sat on every table. Beer and soda was freely poured into jack-o’-lantern-patterned plastic cups. Cookies, brownies, and other themed treats sat on table against one wall, and after an hour, a delivery car drove up with nearly a dozen boxes of pizza.

Apparently being ridiculously in-shape meant you could really let loose on special occasions, Theo mused. He laughed when Darren pulled a bowl of candy onto his lap and begin fishing out all the Reese’s peanut butter cups for himself, and laughed harder when he took out his plastic fangs in defeat, realizing how difficult it was to eat with them in.

Theo was actually finding the fake fangs pretty comfortable. They were only a little more awkward than his real ones. And he couldn’t eat any party food himself, of course. He accepted the plates people handed him, pretending to nibble at their contents before sidling up to Darren and handing the food off.

It was a few hours into the party that Theo was passed a brownie on a napkin and scanned the room for his boyfriend. He found Darren standing in a corner, looking a little uncomfortable.

“Hey,” said Theo, pushing the napkin into Darren’s hand. “Got something for you.”

“Um…” Darren took a short breath. “No thanks. I  _really_ can’t eat that.”

“Well,  _I_ sure can’t.”

“Just throw it out then.”

“What? You don’t like brownies?”

“Theo, do you realize how much food you’ve been giving me all night? How much food  _everyone else_  has been giving me all night?” Darren shot him a forlorn puppy-dog look. “I’m really, really full…. I’ve probably had like, a whole pizza to myself at this point. Not to mention all those peanut butter cups. And those cookies. And like four cups of soda, and those pumpkin cupcakes, and both of our slices of cake, ugh…. Seriously, my stomach’s done.”

Theo couldn’t help laughing. Usually  _he_ was the one whining about fullness as he struggled the get the last of his livestock feasts down, while Darren egged him on. How the tables had turned!

“Well, you’ve gotten this far!” he said cheerfully, echoing Darren’s words to him only the night before. “What’s a little bit more in that tummy, huh?”

Darren hiccuped as Theo patted him on the back. “Ugh. I dunno, I think it might – oh, hi Mark.”

Mark – a big, burly man who was one of the gym’s strength trainers –  grinned as he saw what Darren was holding. “Hey, I baked those brownies myself! What d’you think of ‘em, Darren?”

“Oh….” Darren cleared his throat and took a big bite. “Mmm. Really good.”

“Course they are.” Mark turned his attention to Theo. “I was looking for your boy, actually. Darren’s told us you’re good at word games, Theo. Want to join a round of Scrabble?”

Theo agreed and let Mark steer him over to a side table, his heart swelling a little bit at being included. What a funny thing that here, dressed as a vampire and wearing fake plastic fangs, he felt more like a normal person than he had in months.

He didn’t see Darren again until everyone began shuffling towards the TV for the movie. Seating was limited, and some partygoers were plopping down on the floor, but Darren had already commandeered a big armchair. He was sprawled out in it, head flopped back, his silly cape pooled around him.

Theo wedged himself into the chair beside his boyfriend. “Hey, sleepyhead. How’s it going?”

“Mmm…” Darren mumbled. “Theo, I don’t f–”

“All right, everyone!” the party’s host shouted. “Tonight, we’re going to watch the 1968 horror movie  _Night of the Living Dead!_ This cult classic is one of my personal favorites, and so I thought I’d share a little history about it before we get started….”

Theo was pretending to pay attention when he felt a weird rumbling sensation against his side. Beneath him, Darren shifted and groaned.

“Are you all right?” Theo whispered.

“Ughhhh,” Darren moaned quietly. “No. My stomach really hurts…”

Theo slipped a hand under his boyfriend’s cape to feel his belly. He expected to find it a little bloated – but to his shock, Darren’s stomach was sticking out like a ball, hard and packed solid under his stretched abdominal muscles. “Oh my god, Darr. You’re stuffed.”

“Ughhh, I know. I’ve eaten way too much…” Darren burped quietly as Theo’s fingers pressed gently into his tight stomach. “Doesn’t feel good.”

“Poor thing.” Theo shifted in the chair so he could wrap his free arm around Darren’s back. “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have laughed at you earlier if I realized you were actually feeling sick.”

“S’all right. I was the one who shoved so much food into my stupid face. Should’ve just told you to throw your portions out.” Darren leaned into Theo’s touch, sighing. “Oof. God. I swear, I can feel my pulse in my tummy.”

“Do you wanna go home?”

Darren let out a strained chuckle. “And tell my co-workers what? That a grown man gave himself a tummyache eating too much Halloween candy?” 

“They know you. They probably wouldn’t be surprised.”

It relieved Theo that Darren wasn’t feeling too unwell to laugh. “Well, I dunno if I could walk to the bus in this condition anyway. How about you just keep on rubbing my belly?”

Theo obligingly circled his hand over the big warm curve, smiling as Darren shifted and sighed in relief. As their host finally shut up and the lights went down, Theo nestled his cheek against Darren’s chest and gave his tummy a few gentle pats. “Try to digest before the movie’s over, huh?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Darren mumbled sleepily. “Whatever you say.”


End file.
